Speaker thwarts UDF bid to discuss martyr's fund loot in Assembly. Opposition stages boycott

Finally, the Opposition UDF was in possession of a political issue that the LDF government would run away from, rather than agree to a debate in the Assembly: CPM's martyr's fund loot.

On Tuesday, the UDF brought the issue to the Assembly through an adjournment motion. The motion was not directly about former Payyannur CPM area secretary P V Unnikrishnan's allegations.

Had it been so, the Speaker could have easily rejected the motion, saying the matter at hand did not satisfy the condition of being an issue of state concern. So Congress's Irikkur MLA Sajeev Joseph sought leave to adjourn the House to discuss the "brutal attack" unleashed by CPM men on Congress workers who took a protest march to Payyannur MLA T I Madhusoodanan's house in the martyr's fund issue. If the motion was tabled, it would have been up to Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, who is also the home minister, to clarify the government's stand. Pinarayi would have been forced to touch upon Kunhikrishnan's charges, too.

Such an eventuality was thwarted. Without bothering to offer any reason, Speaker A N Shamseer did not allow the motion to be even tabled on the floor of the House. Opposition Leader V D Satheesan wanted to know the provision of the Kerala Assembly Rules and Procedures under which the adjournment motion was rejected. "This is a very serious issue," the Opposition leader said.

"Where else should we raise this issue other than in the Assembly when CPM goons attack Congress workers including women from behind as they march towards the house of the MLA following a serious revelation of fraud. Many who were attacked have been hospitalised," Satheesan said.

The Speaker ignored the Opposition Leader and went ahead with the day's proceedings. The UDF MLAs trooped to the well of the House, raised some feeble slogans and then silently walked out of the House.

It looked like the UDF aggression was saved for a press meet that was held minutes after the boycott. Clearly, the UDF planned to amplify Kunhikrishnan's revelations. The Opposition Leader said that P V Kunhikrishnan's life was in danger. "His life is in danger because he has questioned party leaders. He is now in the same situation as the one T P Chandrasekharan found himself in many years ago," Satheesan said. RMP's Vadakara MLA K K Rema, the widow of Chandrasekharan, said: "Let's hope an Innova does not stalk him." (It was an Innova car that Chandrasekharan's killers had used.)

Satheesan said that the CPM bred violence. "The person who hurled a steel bomb at a police jeep was made a councillor in Payyannur Municipality," Satheesan said, a reference to V K Nishad, who won from Payyannur's Mottammal division. The Taliparamba Additional Sessions Court had sentenced Nishad last November for the incident that happened 12 years ago.

Satheesan then hurled a rhetorical poser at the CM: "After having protected a criminal who hurled a steel bomb at a police jeep, what right do you have to occupy the Home Minister's chair?"